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Digital Generations Conference announcement
by Rebekah Willett 02 Apr '04

02 Apr '04

Digital Generations: Children, young people and new media 26-29 July 2004 London, England A major international conference organised by The Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media Institute of Education, University of London Computer games, the internet and other new communications media are often seen to pose threats and dangers to young people; but they also provide new opportunities for creativity and self-determination. This international conference will present the most exciting and challenging new research on children, young people and new digital media. We aim to bring together researchers from a range of academic disciplines – including media and cultural studies, anthropology, sociology, psychology and education – and to promote dialogue within and across research traditions. We also aim to develop dialogue between researchers, practitioners in digital media, and educators. Keynote speakers include David Buckingham (University of London), Mizuko Ito (University of Southern California), Henry Jenkins (MIT), Gunther Kress (University of London) and Sonia Livingstone (London School of Economics). The last day of the conference will be an education day featuring new research and strategies for teachers, as well as workshops led by practitioners, such as games and web designers. We have accepted around 100 papers from over 30 countries, covering topics such as video gaming, online communities, video and music production and mobile telephones. Conference themes will include: <sum> Digital divides: social differences in children's uses of new media <sum> Globalisation and intercultural communication <sum> Changing youth and childhood identities <sum> New media, schools and informal learning <sum> Regulation: censorship or consumer empowerment? <sum> Play, games and interactivity <sum> Children and young people as media producers For more information, including registration forms, see www.ccsonline.org.uk/mediacentre/Events/main.html Email: newmedia2004(a)ioe.ac.uk

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CFP to DOCAM '04 - document research conference
by Niels Windfeld Lund 02 Apr '04

02 Apr '04

CALL FOR PAPERS TO DOCAM '04 The Document Academy presents: DOCAM '04 on: Documents in Convergent Media Environments The Second International Conference on Document Research and Development in Sciences, Arts and Business October 22-24, 2004 University of California, Berkeley DOCAM '04 is the second annual meeting of The Document Academy, an international network chaired and cosponsored by The Program of Documentation Studies, University of Tromsoe, Norway and The School of Information Management and Systems, UC Berkeley. This year we have the pleasure of presenting our French partner: Key-note speaker: Jean-Michel Salaün, ENSSIB - RTP-DOC the chief manager of the «Réseau Thématique Pluridisciplinaire 33», "Documents et contenu : création, indexation, navigation" (2002 - ), a national network in Information and Communication Sciences and Technologies, CNRS (http://rtp-doc.enssib.fr) The main goal for DOCAM '04 is to develop a space and offer time for interdisciplinary and international research cooperation. The multidisciplinary approach in the project enables us to study the problem of converging media from different perspectives, both theoretical and experimental. The international environment enables presentation and exchange of different scientific traditions as well as different social and cultural experiences with convergent media environments. Scholars, developers, artists and practitioners around the world working with document research and development are invited to submit 500 words proposals for papers, posters or demonstrations for seminars and workshops at DOCAM '04 by May 1st 2004. We especially welcome proposals on the following themes: Documents in different convergent media environments (e.g. analogue - digital environments, arts, health care, mass media, business etc.) Document types (audio, visual, verbal, multimedial, performative) Concepts (document, comparison of the concept of document with other concepts (sign, text, discourse, representation etc.)) Methods (hermeneutics, experiments) Technology (analogue and digital instruments, experimental instruments) Proposals should include: - a short description of the work to be presented, - name of all contributors, - address, including email contacts and URL, - a list of up to 5 keywords. Abstract should be submitted electronically in Word or RTF format to niels.windfeld.lund(a)hum.uit.no on May 1st 2004 at the latest. Accepted contributions notified June 1st 2004. Full version should be delivered in RTF or PDF format on October 15. Further details concerning program, registration, accomodation etc. will be available on and added continously to the website of The Document Academy, http://thedocumentacademy.hum.uit.no/. -- Niels Windfeld Lund, professor, Koordinator for dokumentasjonsvitenskap / Chair of Documentation Science Program Institute of Culture and Literature HUM-FAK, Universitetet i Tromsø/University of Tromsoe Breivika, N-9037 Tromsoe, Norway tlf. +47-77646284, fax + 47-77644239 http://thedocumentacademy.hum.uit.no http://thedocumentacademy.hum.uit.no/students/niels.lund/index.html

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Announcement: Community Work Symposium - May 21
by T.L. Taylor 02 Apr '04

02 Apr '04

On Friday, May 21 2004, The ITU's Center for Computer Games Research will be hosting an all-day symposium entitled "Community Work: Managing Multiplayer Culture." Multiplayer game designers and administrators are not simply engaged in creating stable game structures and systems of play but are deeply involved in the creation of communities, cultures, and behaviors. While much has been discussed around the technical challenges MMOG's pose, this symposium takes up the subject of community management and suggests that the design and maintenance of these vibrant worlds pose some of the most interesting challenges facing games today. Speakers for the event are Richard Bartle, Edward Castronova, Julian Dibbell, and Jessica Mulligan. The symposium is free but registration is required by May 14. For full details please visit http://game.itu.dk/comwork/. Look forward to seeing you all in Copenhagen! :) TL PS One additional note: This event is also the third day of my upcoming PhD course, Game Culture. Info for that can be found at http://www.itu.dk/Internet/sw11025.asp. The deadline for applications for the PhD course is April 19. -- ___________________________________ T.L. Taylor, Assistant Professor Center for Computer Games Research Dept. of Digital Aesthetics and Communiction IT University of Copenhagen Glentevej 67, 2400-DK NV Copenhagen +45 38 16 89 61 (tele) / +45 38 16 88 99 (fax) tltaylor(a)itu.dk / http://www.itu.dk/~tltaylor/

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suggestions for consultants?
by Charles Ess 01 Apr '04

01 Apr '04

Dear AoIR-ists: this is a bit off the mark of this list - but I'm looking for suggestions for independent consultants who could help my university in the review of our help desk, network, email, and PC/Mac support. The administration has invited Collegis - described as "the largest independent provider of technology solutions to higher education" - to review our existing Computer Services organization and infrastructure as well as the current use of technology on campus. Collegis will then submit a proposal for providing these services on an outsourcing basis. The independent consultant will be asked to review our current technology operations and the proposal from Collegis. The consultant would provide recommendations which could range from investing in our own department to other corporate providers. Any suggestions for such folk - including contact information - would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Charles Ess Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies Drury University 900 N. Benton Ave. Voice: 417-873-7230 Springfield, MO 65802 USA FAX: 417-873-7435 Home page: http://www.drury.edu/ess/ess.html Co-chair, CATaC: http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/catac/ Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23

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paper acceptance date for aoir sussex?
by bakera＠ohiou.edu 01 Apr '04

01 Apr '04

Hello, Do the conference organizers have a date by which they intend to notify applicants of their acceptance or rejection for presentation? Sorry if I missed it. Thanks. --andrea baker

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BULLETIN: International press release (WPFC releases position paper on Internet governance) (fwd)
by robert m. tynes 01 Apr '04

01 Apr '04

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 14:50:09 -0500 From: IFEX Action Alert Network <alerts(a)ifex.org> Cc: ifexworld(a)lists.ifex.org Subject: BULLETIN: International press release (WPFC releases position paper on Internet governance) IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community _________________________________________________________________ PRESS RELEASE/UPDATE - INTERNATIONAL 1 April 2004 WPFC releases position paper on Internet governance SOURCE: World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC), Reston **Updates IFEX alerts of 30 September, 25 July, 12 June, 27, 24, 13 and 5 February 2003** (WPFC/IFEX) - The following is a 10 March 2004 WPFC position paper: INTERNET GOVERNANCE: DEFEND FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION It is becoming increasingly clear that so-called "governance," management and administration of the Internet will be the central issue in preparations for the second World Summit on the Information Society. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was mandated to direct a study incorporating the views of diverse interests to be produced in time for WSIS II, scheduled for Tunis, Tunisia, in November 2005. Civil society caucuses are already exchanging message traffic on how to determine their positions. Many of those groups have histories of favoring content controls. Any proposals that threaten press freedom on the Internet, whatever the source, should be rejected. It was clear at WSIS I that there was a general feeling among member-states, including US allies in the European Union, that "Internet governance" should not be the exclusive preserve of ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a California-based company under contract to the US Commerce Dept. ICANN has allocated Internet domain names on a neutral, technical basis. It has included industry, NGOs and international representation in its governing board and committees. Governments which want to turn responsibility over to an international body, presumably in the UN system, want to go beyond technical matters to deal with content questions, like pornography, pedophilia, fraud, hate speech, etc., in a way that ICANN has refrained from doing. The Council of Europe's Cybercrime Convention points the way governments seem to be headed. The United States signed that Convention, but it has a separate protocol on hate speech that was designed to give the United States the option not to sign onto an element that would clearly violate the US Constitution's First Amendment. Under the US-accepted compromise of a two-year UN study to submit recommendations to WSIS II, a process has begun that will probably produce a UN proposal for modifications of the Internet governance system. A role for ICANN should be preserved as part of any new system that may emerge under UN auspices. Supporters of a free and open Internet should be able, with the backing of allies like the UN Department of Information and Communications and the UNESCO Secretariat, to resist any changes that threaten the free flow of information and ideas on the Internet. "Governance" must not be allowed to become a code word for government regulation of Internet content. The intergovernmental debates over two years of preparations for WSIS I amply demonstrated that authoritarian governments, which already censor their own Internet traffic, seek content controls internationally and/or legitimization of such controls nationally. The system must not be reorganized to permit this on an international level or encourage it at the national level. In fact, the Internet's growth, popularity and integrity are based on its content not being regulated by governments or international organizations. Bearing in mind that the Declaration adopted December 12, 2003, at the World Summit in Geneva provided that "freedom of the press and freedom of information . . . are essential to the Information Society," the following principles should guide any changes in the Internet governance system: 1. There should be no controls over content, nor modifications of the Internet's technical "architecture" that facilitate or permit censorship of news or editorial opinion. Nor should "self-regulation" be allowed to become a surrogate for governmental regulation of content on the Internet. 2. The system should explicitly commit itself to respect and to implement Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and to the fundamental principle of press freedom. National or international security concerns must not be allowed to limit freedom of expression, including news and editorial comment, in cyberspace. 3. Considerations of "ethics" should not be allowed to become a veiled approach to introducing or allowing censorship. 4. There are many forms of communication over the Internet, and it is important not to confuse them. News, for example, is different from such things as pornography, pedophilia, fraud, conspiracy for terrorism, incitement to violence, hate speech, etc., although there may be news stories about such problems. Such matters are normally covered in existing national general legislation and should, if appropriate and necessary, be prosecuted on the national level in the country of origin. 5. Any legal actions that may arise should be adjudicated in the jurisdiction where a disputed message first originated, or in a single jurisdiction agreed upon by the parties to any given dispute. The Internet is a major opportunity to improve exchanges of information and ideas throughout the world. Nothing should be allowed to restrict this powerful new medium for better communications among people. For further information, contact the WPFC, 11690-C Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, Virginia 20191 U.S.A., tel: +1 703 715 9811, fax: +1 703 620 6790, e-mail: freepress(a)wpfc.org, Internet: http://www.wpfc.org The information contained in this press release/update is the sole responsibility of WPFC. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit WPFC. _________________________________________________________________ DISTRIBUTED BY THE INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION EXCHANGE (IFEX) CLEARING HOUSE 489 College Street, Suite 403, Toronto (ON) M6G 1A5 CANADA tel: +1 416 515 9622, fax: +1 416 515 7879 alerts e-mail: alerts(a)ifex.org general e-mail ifex(a)ifex.org, Internet site: http://www.ifex.org/ __________________________________________________________________

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Cyborglogs: International Workshop on Camphones (community wisdomatics)
by Steve Mann 31 Mar '04

31 Mar '04

> I am a casting producer over at the Sci Fi Channel and I am came across > your name while doing research on Cyborgs for a show I am putting > together. I was wondering if you could offer some advice and direction. > I am looking to speak to individuals who are transforming themselves into > cyborgs or who function as cyborgs. Please forgive me if I sound ignorant ... > From: "Michael Gurstein" <mgurst(a)vcn.bc.ca> > Subject: RE: [Air-l] the history of social infomatics > Thanks to Kevin and Maja, > > I only met Rob Kling once (at the AoIR meeting in Maastricht). We were > introduced by some mutual acquaintances. We immediately entered into an > intense conversation on Community Informatics vs. Social Informatics... > I was struck by the fact that he had read (and deeply assimilated) all > of what I thought were the relevant materials. ... > His strongly but respectfully presented challenge was two-fold, first > "what was new or different (from say, Social Informatics), about > Community Informatics" and second if there was something new about CI, > what were appropriate methodologies for analysing/researching in the ... > As Kevin noted, he very generously made an invitation to prepare a > "Position Paper" on Community Informatics for an upcoming issue of > Information Society. As these things happen, the article took rather > longer than I would have liked when I received the shocking news of his > untimely death. You might find our upcoming workshop on what we might more aptly call Community/Social Wisdomatics (Workshop on Inverse Surveillance) to be of interest. It's less about informatics and maybe more about social interactions and not so much information and knowledge creation but more about the wisdomain knowledge of knowing what areas of research to study. In any case it's all about Cyborglogs (or 'glogs as they've become known), so it should certainly be of interest to you or anyone else who'd like to submit a short 1 page extended abstract or a 4 page paper. Here's the Call for Participation: International Workshop on Inverse Surveillance: Cameraphones, Cyborglogs, and Computational seeing aids; exploring and defining a research agenda Date: 2004 April 12th. Time: 12:00noon to 4pm (a working lunch will be served) Location: Colony Hotel (1-866-824-9330), 89 Chestnut Street, Toronto Website: http://eyetap.org/iwis/ TOPICS: * Camera phones and pocket organizers with sensors; * Weblogs ('blogs), Moblogs, Cyborglogs ('glogs); * Wearable camera phones and personal imaging systems; * Electric eyeglasses and other computational seeing and memory aids; * Recording experiences in which you are a participant; * Portable personal imaging and multimedia; * Wearable technologies and systems; * Ethical, legal, and policy issues; * Privacy and related technosocial issues; * Safety and security; * Democracy and emergent democracy (protesters organizing with SMS camphones); * Technologies to prevent totalitarianism, state-terrorism, and genocide; * Technologies of lifelong video capture; * Personal safety devices and wearable "black box" recorders; * Research issues in "people looking at people"; * Person-to-person sharing of personal experiences; * End of gender-specific space (e.g. blind man guided by wife: which restroom?); * Subjectright: ownership of photograph by subject rather than photographer; * Reverse copyright: protect information recipient, not just the transmitient; * Interoperability and open standards; * Algebraic Projective Geometry from a first-person perspective; * Object Detection and Recognition from a first-person perspective; * Computer Vision, egomotion and way-finding technologies; * Lifelong Image Capture: data organization; new cinematographic genres; * New Devices and Technologies for ultra miniature portable cameras; * Social Issues: fashion, design, acceptability and human factors; * Electronic News-gathering and Journalism; * Psychogeography, location-based wearable computing; * Augmented/Mediated/Diminished Reality; * Empowering children with inverse surveillance: Constructionist learning, creation of own family album, and prevention of both bullying by peers and abuse by teachers or other officials. TO PARTICIPATE: IWIS 2004 will be a small intimate discussion group, limited to 25 participants. Email your name, the name of your organization, and what you might add to the meeting, as part of a one page extended abstract, outlining your position on, and proposed contribution to the theme of inverse surveillance. Submissions should be sent by email to hilab [at] eyetap.org. Alternatively, authors may email up to four pages, in IEEE two column camera-ready format that address the theme of inverse surveillance. Prospective participants wishing to submit a full paper may also contact the workshop facilitators prior to submission. All participants (accepted papers or extended abstracts) will have the opportunity to contribute to the published proceedings. There is no workshop registration fee. There is no submission deadline; reviews will continue until there are sufficient numbers of high quality theme-relevant contributors. PROGRAM COMMITTEE: * Dr. Jim Gemmell, MyLifeBits (lifetime data storage) project with Gordon Bell; author of various publications on lifelong personal experience capture, Microsoft research. * Joi Ito, Japan's leading thinker on technology; ranked among the "50 Stars" by Business Week; commended by Japanese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications; chosen by World Economic Forum as one of the 100 "Global Leaders of Tomorrow"; Board member of Creative Commons; http://joi.ito.com/moblog2/ * Anastasios Venetsanopoulos, Dean, Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, University of Toronto; author on hundreds of publications on image processing. * John M. Kennedy, Chair, Department of Life Sciences, UTSC; author of Drawing and the Blind: Pictures to Touch. * Dr. Stefanos Pantagis, Physician, Hackensack University Medical Center; Geriatrician, doing research on wearable computers to assist the blind, and clinical work on brainwave EyeTap interfaces for Parkinson's patients. * Steve Mann, author of CYBORG: Digital Destiny and Human Possibility in the Age of the Wearable Computer; 30 years experience inventing, designing, building, and wearing devices and systems for personal imaging. * Douglas Schuler, former chair, Computing Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR); founding member SCN. * Stephanie Perrin, Former Chief Privacy Officer of Zero-Knowledge Systems; Former Director of Privacy Policy for Industry Canada's Electronic Commerce Task Force; responsible for developing domestic privacy policies, new technologies, legislation, standards and public education; recipient of the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award. * Dr. Jason Nolan, Senior Fellow, Mcluhan Program in Culture and Technology * Dr. Nina Levent, art historian, New York Academy of Art; works with visually impaired; collaboration on using EyeTaps and wearcamphones in museum education. * Elizabeth Axel, founder, Art Education for the Blind, Inc. (AEB); collaboration on using EyeTaps and wearcamphones in museum education. _________________________________________________________________ ORGANIZERS: S. Mann; S. Martin (smartin(a)ecf.utoronto.ca) and J. Nolan. IWIS 2004 arises from planning over, the past 2 years, at Deconference 2002/2003. ADMINISTRATION: PDC, 416-978-3481 or toll free 1-888-233-8638 PUBLICITY LIAISON: Daniel Chen (dan [at] eyetap.org) and Jacqueline MacNeil (jacq [at] ecf.toronto.edu) _________________________________________________________________ This April 2004 Workshop, IWIS, will also serve as a planning forum for next year's Symposium: ISIS. Here's a summary of surveillance versus inverse surveillance, to lay the groundwork for the technologies and issues we hope to discuss: Surveillance Sousveillance ------------ ------------- God's eye view from above. Human's eye view. (Authority watching from on-high.) ("Down-to-earth.") Cameras usually mounted on high Cameras down-to-earth (at poles, up on ceiling, etc.. (ground level), e.g. at human eye-level. Sur-veiller is French for "to Sous-veiller is French for "to watch from above". watch from below". Architecture-centered Human-centered (e.g. cameras usually mounted on (e.g. cameras carried or worn or in structures). by, or on, people). Recordings made by authorities, Recordings of an activity remote security staff, etc.. made by a participant in the activity. Note that in most states it's In most states it's legal to illegal to record a phone record a phone conversation of conversation of which you are which you are a party. Perhaps not a party. Perhaps the same the same would apply to an would apply to an audiovisual audiovisual recording of your own recording of somebody else's conversations, i.e. conversations conversation. in which you are a party. Recordings are usually kept in Recordings are often made public secret. e.g., on the World Wide Web. Process usually shrouded in Process, technology, etc., are secrecy. usually public, open source, etc.. Panoptic origins, as described Community-based origins, e.g. by Foucault, originally in the a personal electronic diary, context of a prison in which made public on the World Wide Web. prisoners were isolated from Sousveillance tends to bring each other but visible at all together individuals, e.g. it times by guards. Surveillance tends to make a large city tends to isolate individuals function more like a small town, from one another while setting with the pitfalls of gossip, but forth a one-way visibility to also the benefits of a sense of authority figures. community participation. Privacy violation may go Privacy violation is usually un-noticed, or un-checked. immediately evident. Tends Tends to not be self-correcting. to be self-correcting. It's hard to have a heart-to-heart At least there's a chance you can conversation with a lamp post, talk to the person behind the on top of which is mounted a sousveillance camera. surveillance camera. When combined with computers, we When combined with computers, we get ubiquitous computing get wearable computing. ("ubiqcomp") or pervasive ("wearcomp"). Wearcomp usually computing ("pervcomp"). doesn't require the cooperation Ubiq./perv. comp. tend to rely on of any infrastructure in the cooperation of the infrastructure environments around us. in the environments around us. With surveillant-computing, the With sousveillant-computing, it locus of control tends to be with is possible for the locus of the authorities. control to be more distributed. See also, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sousveillance

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Scholarships for Graduate Studies in Brazil (msg in Portuguese only)
by Suely Fragoso 31 Mar '04

31 Mar '04

Inscrições para PEC-PG abrem em abril O Programa de Estudante-Convênio de Pós-Graduação (PEC-PG), realização conjunta do Ministério das Relações Exteriores, CAPES e CNPq, vai abrir inscrições para estrangeiros interessados em bolsas de mestrado e doutorado, no período de 1º de abril a 30 de junho. As inscrições deverão ser feitas exclusivamente nas Embaixadas do Brasil, nos países de origem dos candidatos. As bolsas do PEC-PG são concedidas em todas as áreas de conhecimento nas quais existam programas de pós- graduação que emitam diplomas de validade nacional, de modo a promover a qualificação de pessoal de nível superior dos países em desenvolvimento com os quais o Brasil mantém Acordo de Cooperação Cultural e/ou Educacional (África, Ásia, Oceania, América Latina e Caribe). Em funcionamento desde 1981, o programa PEC/PG já formou 1.172 mestres e 300 doutores. Requisitos - Os interessados não podem ser cidadãos brasileiros, ainda que binacionais, nem ter visto permanente no Brasil e devem apresentar Certificado de Proeficiência em Língua Portuguesa para Estrangeiros (Celpe-Bras). A participação de ex-bolsistas do PEC-G - Programa de Estudantes- Convênio de Graduação, está condicionada à comprovação do exercício de atividades profissionais em seu país de origem por um período mínimo de 2 anos. Os estudantes aprovados terão isenção de taxas escolares e receberão bolsa de valor igual à do estudante brasileiro no país; auxílio-instalação; auxílio-tese; e passagem aérea de retorno. Mais informações estão disponíveis no Edital do PEC-PG, na página da Capes - <http://www.capes.gov.br> . Fale conosco Coordenação de Comunicação e Documentação- CCD/Capes Fones: (61) 2104.8254/8860 -- Esta mensagem foi verificada pelo sistema de antivírus e acredita-se estar livre de perigo. Proteção dada por: MailScanner http://www.mailscanner.info MEC - CAPES ----- Finalizar mensagem encaminhada ----- ------------------------------------------------- Webmail UNISINOS - http://www.unisinos.br ------- End of forwarded message -------GT TICS - Compós Suely Fragoso (coordenadora) gt_tics(a)icaro.unisinos.br

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IRB / REB ... accounts - collection project
by Charles Ess 30 Mar '04

30 Mar '04

Dear AoIR-ists: The AoIR ethics working committee would like to collect examples of positive and productive discussions between researchers and Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), REBs, and their equivalents outside the U.S. and Canadian borders. Thanks to the concerted efforts of Mark Johns, Lois Ann Scheidt, Mary Gray, and the ethics working committee, there is now a website available for AoIR-ists to help us collect these experiences and insights concerning working with oversight authorities such as IRBs or their equivalents. Please see <http://faculty.luther.edu/~johnsmar/AoIR/AoIRform.htm> First of all, please be assured that any material provided through this site will be treated as confidential. It will be shared initially with the ethics working committee on our closed list. If the material promises to be useful to the larger AoIR membership - it will be distributed only in a form (e.g., anonymized) explicitly approved by the author(s). Our goal is to develop a collection of real-world examples of current ethical issues in Internet research and examples of their resolutionsfirst of all, in order to develop an aggregate picture of contemporary research ethics. We think this database of examples, moreover, will be especially useful to researchers with little previous experience in taking up the issues typically raised by IRBs and their equivalents, as it will serve as an introduction and orientation to these issues and the processes of dialogue and negotiation needed for their successful resolution. As well, this database should provide a useful set of examples that can serve as precedents for researchers using similar methodologies, etc., who must provide their IRBs or equivalents with suitable argumentation and rationale for their ethical procedures. Finally, these examples will help the ethics working committee see where the current AoIR ethical guidelines have been usefuland where they need further revision and development. Mark D. Johns, Assistant Professor of Communication at Luther College, on behalf of the ethics working committee of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR), is using this survey to gather research data on the experiences of researchers who have utilized the AoIR Research Ethics guidelines to successfully secure IRB approval for their research projects. Again, all information submitted on this website will be treated as confidential--i.e., it will be discussed as submitted solely by the members of the AoIR ethics working committee. For use beyond the AoIR ethics working committee, we will exercise whatever degree of anonymity a researcher may request for his/her account -- i.e., including the possibility of anonymizing the researcher, the institution and discipline(s) involved, etc. We will use specific examples in more public venues -- beginning with the AoIR list itself -- only after a specific version of a researcher's account has been submitted to the researcher for review and the researcher has granted the AoIR ethics working committee permission to use. However, in order to discuss with you the level of anonymity required, and to receive any other necessary follow up, it is necessary that you provide an email address by which we may reach you. This research is being conducted under the auspices of the Luther College in Decorah, Iowa USA and the Luther College Human Subjects Research Board (HSRB). If you have any questions about the intended uses, practices of anonymity, etc. - please contact Dr. Charles Ess, chair of the AoIR Ethics Working Committee (cmess(a)drury.edu) Dr. Mark D. Johns at Luther College (johnsmar(a)luther.edu) or Dr. Julie Potter, chair of the Luther College HSRB (potterju(a)luther.edu) While there may well be compelling reasons for researchers _not_ to share their stories with us in this way - we hope that enough of us will be able to contribute to this collection so as to eventually constitute a useful set of examples, insights, precedents, etc. for the AoIR membership. Our thanks to Mark Johns, Lois Ann Scheidt, and Mary Gray for helping to realize and shepherd this project along. Cheers and all best wishes, Charles Ess Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies Drury University 900 N. Benton Ave. Voice: 417-873-7230 Springfield, MO 65802 USA FAX: 417-873-7435 Home page: http://www.drury.edu/ess/ess.html Co-chair, CATaC: http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/catac/ Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23

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Couch Student Award CFP
by Mark D. Johns 29 Mar '04

29 Mar '04

CALL FOR AWARD APPLICATIONS Carl J. Couch Internet Research Award Sponsored by the Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research http://www.cccsir.org/ The Carl Couch Center issues an annual call for student-authored papers to be considered for Carl J. Couch Internet Research Award. The Couch Center welcomes both theoretical and empirical papers that (1) apply symbolic interactionist approaches to Internet studies, (2) demonstrate interactive relationships between social interaction and communication technologies as advocated by Couch, and/or (3) develop symbolic interactionist concepts in new directions. Papers will be evaluated based on the quality of (1) mastery of Symbolic Interactionist approaches and concepts and Couch's theses, (2) originality, (3) organization, (4) presentation, and (5) advancement of knowledge. Evaluation will be administered by a Review Committee of four: Dr. Mark D. Johns, Luther College Dr. Katherine M. Clegg Smith, Johns Hopkins University Dr. Lori Kendall, SUNY-Purchase Dr. Mary Chayko, College of Saint Elizabeth Competition is open to graduate or undergraduate students of all disciplines. Works that are published or accepted for publication are not eligible for award consideration. The top three papers will receive Couch Awards to be presented at the 2004 International Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers at University of Sussex, England. The top paper will be awarded a certificate and a cash prize of $300, runner up will receive a certificate and a cash prize of $200, and a third paper will receive a certificate and a cash prize of $100. All three authors will be invited to present their work at a session of the A.o.I.R. conference, September 19-22, 2004. Those interested should send a copy of their paper, with a 100-word abstract, electronically to Mark Johns at . Application deadline is May 1, 2004. Notification of award will be sent by June 15. Those with questions or comments about Couch Award application, please contact: Mark D. Johns Dept. of Communication/Linguistics Luther College Decorah, IA 52101 Tel: (563) 387-1347 E-mail: johnsmar(a)luther.edu

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